Sweat contains important information about our health, and researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Engineering have made a significant advance in sweat analysis with their innovative 3D-printed wearable sweat sensor called a “sweatainer.”
This small, portable device collects and analyzes sweat, offering a glimpse into the future of health monitoring. Traditional approaches to sweat collection require special handling and expensive laboratory equipment. The recent advent of wearable sweat sensors has addressed some of these challenges, but these devices are still single use.
The sweatatainer is unique in its “multi-draw” sweat collection method, which allows for the collection of multiple separate sweat samples for analysis, either directly on the device or sent to a laboratory. Inspired by the vacutainer used in clinical blood sampling, this advance not only makes sweat collection more efficient, but also opens up new possibilities for at-home testing, sample storage for future research, and integration with existing health monitoring methods.
precious body fluids
“Sweat is a really rich biofluid – it allows us to have a non-invasive window into the body to really understand a person’s physiological state of health, and therefore if we want to look at disease states like cystic fibrosis or diabetes, we have access to the body in a would be similar to what we would get through blood draws,” said Tyler Ray, an assistant professor in the UH Manoa College of Engineering.
“We’re really trying to think about what the local needs are here and how to address them. And we’re doing it in partnership with JABSOM and COPPER diabetes center, and then we’re working here in the College of Engineering to broadly innovate and develop the innovation-focused workforce in healthcare.”
Portable sensors? No sweat!
The researchers used 3D printing to show the vast opportunities for affordable, innovative, and cost-effective prototyping of advanced wearable sweat devices. Through the model established in the sweatatainer, the researchers hope to continue driving innovation to create a future where personal health management is more accessible, convenient and insightful.
The findings were published in a paper titled “Spatially Engineered 3D Fluid-Skin Interface Microfluidic Systems for Sweat Capture and Analysis,” in the journal Science Advances, and you can access the full paper here.
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